JonasEB

No, I wouldn't say so. The Killing is entertaining but it's ony fluff with an attitude (fluff can be great, but serious minded superficial fluff - no, no, no.) The poorly assembled ending comes off just silly, whether or not there was any comic intent in it, but the rest of it is quite nice. The documentary style actually isn't unfamiliar; The Naked City used it eight years before and the general trend among crime movies after the war was to use location shooting inspired by documentary realism - Gun Crazy, Side Street, Night and the City, and Panic in the Streets being prominent examples. And The Killing is in reality one of the best known films tagged with the "noir" title: Stanley Kubrick (film noir = COOOOOOOOL!) the perceived link to Reservoir Dogs = IMDB message board wackiness.

> {quote:title=slaytonf wrote:}{quote}Can Fassbinder, Wenders, or Herzog be far behind? I've been requesting Fassbinder and Wenders for a long time so hopefully something will come up - Criterion has posted Alice in the Cities on their Hulu channel so it's clearly open for TCM to show now. There was also the two Chantal Akerman films earlier this year, definitely something you won't see on any other movie channel, ditto the first Mikio Naruse film on U.S. TV in ages (if ever.) And this December it appears that TCM is going to show the highly sought after Japanese silent film A Page of Madness. It'll be interesting to see how it is presented (completely silent? With a western-style score? Benshi?) TCM's selections are becoming increasingly adventurous and I definitely hope to see it continue.

> {quote:title=voranis wrote:}{quote} Is TCM having financial trouble? Well, considering TCM is continuing the TCM Film Festival for a third year and conjuring up ridiculous ideas like the TCM Classic Film Cruise, I doubt they're having any financial difficulties. I'd say a bigger problem with the interstitial programming is that they repeat the same promos and trailers over and over and over. I remember watching the Our Gang marathon earlier this year and being bombarded with the same "Dennis Hoppper on Nick Ray" bit dozens of times. That's an extreme case, those were all short films so the time between films was more abundant than usual, but it's basically true of the ordinary day to day programming as well. As for promoting DVDs - Store shelf space is becoming increasingly scarce for old movies these days and the Warner Archive is only available via the internet so I have absolutely no problem with TCM advertising any of these things.

> {quote:title=musicalnovelty wrote:}{quote} > The 14th continues to get more intriguing with each added title. Wonder what the theme is...looks like another "Treasures from an Archive" day. Indeed, the film "Kurutta Ippeijji" is the great Japanese silent Page of Madness by Teinosuke Kinugasa. This is a very, very big deal.

> {quote:title=Dano16 wrote:Silent films are now often referred to as classics, too. Though until recently many film fans saw them as simply forerunners to the classic Hollywood period. They are classics and always were classics, it's only foolish prejudice and ignorance otherwise. Classical style was invented, even perfected, in the 1910s, and most of the 1930s was spent catching up to what the 1920s had achieved. Furthermore, the studio system that everyone remembers was fully operational in the 1920s and identical to what existed in the 1930s. So it's only simple distaste for anything that isn't talking that pushed that ludicrous idea into any kind of attention. But "Classic" in TCM doesn't refer to classical style, it's exactly what classic means in other contexts; vintage, exemplary, etc. Most of the films made in the post-studio era are still classical in style and have nothing to do with experimental or avant-garde films. Something like The 400 Blows is basically classical in approach. Breathless is another matter but most of the stuff that claimed to be influenced by it completely missed the greater point and only borrowed the techniques like jump-cuts, using them in otherwise classical contexts.

> {quote:title=MissScarlett123 wrote:}{quote}(I believe the definition is atleast 20 years old). Nah, if it's great, it's a classic. Yi Yi (2000) is a masterpiece and better than 99% of the old classics - completely worthy of being termed a "classic." And anyway, TCM's webstore is a proxy of a wider distributor, so it doesn't mean anything that they sell recent films.

This looks amazing! What a wonderful restoration. I eagerly await the Blu-ray release.

> {quote:title=Kinokima wrote:}{quote}Awesome didn't expect someone else to know Only Yesterday on here > > I know people know Ghibli on here but that one isn't released in the states (and what a shame it is). > Only Yesterday might be Studio Ghibli's greatest film, which makes it all the sadder that Disney hasn't released it here. One of the best films about early adulthood and perhaps the most genuine example of the reality of nostalgia - where there is comfort there is also much pain. A real masterpiece and surely one of the best films of the 1990s. It is shameful that Takahata is so ignored here; he's not just one of the greatest animators, arguably superior even to Miyazaki, he is one of the great Japanese filmmakers of the last 30 years. Along with Only Yesterday, here's what American viewers are currently missing out on... Chie the Brat (pre-Ghibli 1981) - This is the first great work of the extended Ghibli universe. Like Only Yesterday, Grave of the Fireflies, and My Neighbors the Yamadas, everyday life is depicted with the embellishments that only animation can best provide. It deals with serious themes (divorce and how children relate to their parents) with good natured comedy. Never mawkish, always truthful. Gauche the Cellist (pre-Ghibli 1982) - The importance of one's responsibilities (and the pressures) to their wider community, self improvement, and what is necessary to become a great musician, all told imaginatively through some of the finest mixtures of sound and image in animation and film. The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (non-Ghibli 1987) - This should be one of the most renowned documentaries in the world but alas it is not. Not an animated film, it's a 3 hour long documentary produced for NHK TV, but it does feature historical depictions via animation (provided by Ghibli.) It is the story of the canal system of the town of Yanagawa - how and why they were built, the rhythm of life and the people who live there, the efforts to salvage and restore them. It is not only an exceptional piece of history, it is an anthropological document, a question of identity, a treatise on modernism and traditional life. Along with Only Yesterday, this is Takahata's greatest achievement. The latter two are owned by Studio Ghibli in Japan, so I assume Disney has the right to release them here (but of course they won't.) The Japanese DVDs have English subtitles and are well worth owning (but quite pricey, unfortunately.)

I have to disagree - imagine Burt Lancaster's performance as if this were a silent film, and his physical presence and body language is the major reason why this is such a tremendous performance, and it becomes abundantly clear why this is one of the greatest of all male performances in cinema. It's not Lancaster's voice but Visconti, one of the great perfectionists, did not slouch on the dubbed performances - lip synching aside, it's very good. It's Visconti's film first and foremost afterall, of which Lancaster is but one part, and as important as B.L. is, Alain Delon's transformation is as vital to the ultimate success of the film. Lancaster's voice is fine in the truncated English dub but it's not the same film.

Here's the cover art of the new Meet Me in St. Louis blu-ray... (sigh)...Why couldn't they just re-use the perfectly fine DVD cover?

Eisenstein - Battleship Potemkin or Strike are the best starting points, for Eisenstein, the Soviet montage school, and Russian cinema in general. Strike will be on TCM in November, as will the sound films Ivan the Terrible parts 1 & 2, a different beast but just as brilliant; it's still montage but instead of intense cutting on distinct images and ideas based on social-realist types, these two films, with a greater grounding in narrative and character, are orchestrated on baroque images - extreme theatricality, like The Scarlet Empress - and music. It's like a big expressionist musical, particularly part 2.

> {quote:title=EugeniaH wrote:}{quote}{font:Times New Roman} {font} > {font:Calibri}{font}{font:Calibri}The soundtrack is incredible and fits the film perfectly. I listen to it on my iPod. {font} I'm not one of those people who vehemently dislikes the Voices of Light oratorio but I do think it's stylistically at odds with Dreyer's methods - austere, spartan, direct. It places too much...weight...onto the images. If Eisenstein had made it I would agree that it's perfect but Dreyer situates Joan in more isolated territory - spiritually above all, but also socially, culturally, sexually. Its design is intimate and I think the music robs that aspect of the film. Try watching it in darkness and complete silence - this is how Dreyer wanted it. It's an unreal experience, one of the great film experiences. I do think the music comes in handy for people viewing on smaller televisions, but if you have a decent sized HDTV, definitely try the silence. The Parson's Widow very much reflects the influence of D.W. Griffith on Dreyer, it has much in common with films like True Heart Susie, Way Down East, and other rural Griffiths in its depiction of individuals conforming in broader society's conventions. It's a good film, I like it a lot, but it's early Dreyer and he would grow radically with each new film. Michael is a significant turning point, where many of Dreyer's characteristic techniques comes into form - particularly the close-up.

Tons of people.

TCM Impots in November: Stolen Kisses Sansho the Bailiff Ivan the Terrible part 1 Ivan the Terrible part 2 Silent Sundays in November: Laurel and Hardy films What Price Glory Pandora's Box Strike

Did some searching to see what was going to be on in November and found What Price Glory listed among Raoul Walsh films in the coming months - http://www.tcm.com/search/index.html?text=Raoul%20Walsh&type=schedule&start=1&npp=16 http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/502729/What-Price-Glory/

If you're calling these films... Morocco (any Sternberg) Earth Tabu The Smiling Lieutenant (any Lubitsch) A Farewell to Arms Rules of the Game (any Renoir) Young Mr. Lincoln ...*"assembly line talk fests, romantic dreck, unfunny comedies."*... You really are clueless.

There's only one, Charles Laughton, because he only made one film. But if he had made more I think he would have surpassed his first film - they always do.

There wasn't a substantial difference between the studio system of the 1920s and 1930s - the contracts were there, the factory production line model was there, the generic styles were there, a lot of bad films next to the few genuinely great ones (the latter a universal fact of pretty much everything - books, paintings, any art or media.) That "romance" you have so much disdain for was there in spades. If you claim to like silent films I'd think you'd at least have watched enough/studied the era enough to know this. If you think the 30s were bad then you're a lazy undiscerning viewer.

http://www.tcm.com/suggest-a-movie/index.html

Seven Years Bad Luck was the only silent French comedy on in June but I think you might be mixing it up with Jacques Tati's Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1954). It isn't a silent film but it is French and very much like a silent film and it is set at a resort. It's going to be on again in October. Here's the TCM page for it... http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83708/Mr-Hulot-s-Holiday/

Seven Years Bad Luck was the only silent French comedy on in June but I think you might be mixing it up with Jacques Tati's Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1954). It isn't a silent film but it is French and very much like a silent film and it is set at a resort. It's going to be on again in October. Here's the TCM page for it... http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83708/Mr-Hulot-s-Holiday/

It's a good idea but it's simply too cost prohibitive...if it were to be run like TCM anyway - a large variety with few repeats. Licensing from the companies that deal in world cinema is already more expensive due to the web of copyrights compared to the studio films TCM shows - paying the NA distributor who has to pay the original rights holder/holders vs. a one to one transaction. The problem with international licensing is that companies prefer to find a broad distributor in North America who then licenses to TV rather than dealing films on an individual basis (not to mention the sheer number of companies the channel would have to deal with in the realm of world cinema.) As for getting films not distributed in North America, with Blu-ray we've mostly gotten rid of the NTSC-PAL issue but it is still a problem with TV; most European rights holders would only make an HD TV master suitable for Euro broadcast, they wouldn't want to spend extra cash on another market. Whoever would show the film in North America would have to shoulder the cost to make a TV master for the U.S. An IFC/Sundance type of channel with a lot of repeat programming might be more feasible but I don't find it very attractive and of course IFC recently ruined itself via commercials + stagnant programming and Sundance is likely to follow it. But you can bet if I was a billionaire Ted Turner type I would try to create a channel for that purpose.

This happens with foreign language films on TCMHD. The only thing you can do: Don't DVR TCMHD, use the normal channel. TCMHD isn't real HD anyway, the artificial zooming on old letterbox masters is what causes the problem. Say you had a letterboxed - non-anamorphic - DVD. Watching it on a 16X9 TV would leave blank space on all sides. That's the equivalent of what TCM gets with an SD broadcast master. The only solution is to leave it as is, or artifically zoom it. In the latter case, the subs might be cut off because they are hard-programmed to appear at one place on the screen regardless of what kind of TV you are using. The only thing TCM can do about it is not zoom the picture, otherwise it's up to whoever makes the master of the film in question to make a new transfer and place the subtitles in the picture of the film (nothing in the black, everything on the actual film image.)

Huge news! http://www.tcm.com/schedule/october2011.html As if the appearance of Wind Across the Everglades wasn't already a big enough deal, take a look at October 25th - TCM plans to show Ray's unfinished experimental film *We Can't Go Home Again* ! It has been known for several months that the film would be screened at this year's Venice Film Festival but I don't think anyone foresaw a TV premier so soon. As a huge Ray fan, this is the news of the year!

For anyone who wants to see Tokyo Olympiad, check your cable/satellite provider's On Demand selection. If you have TCM On Demand, it should be there. I'm a Comcast subscriber and it is currently available for free until August 19th.